Fighting the Past
by steve the snapdragon
Summary: This is my first story so I have no idea what to write but I feel like it is unique and would love to hear what you have to say.


"She's making a break for it. 01 she is headed toward you." The radio crackled as the speaker dashed back out of the room he had just entered. He didn't even look back as he ran down the stairs and out onto the street.

"Copy 04." Was the only response that was given.

As the footsteps of her pursuer vanished the girl laughed to herself and climbed back into the room. She looked around the room that she had once called home, but now that they knew were she was hiding out she would have to move. Again. This was the fifth time this month and it was getting harder and harder to evade them. This time had been the closest yet. The blonde had pushed in her door and she had barely made it out the window before he grabbed her. She grabbed the worn black duffle bag and began to fill it with the things that she needed. She never kept more then she needed. She was always ready to run, her life so far had made that necessary. She turned off the lights as she glanced back over the room. It was empty now except for a small slip of white paper. The door shut with a resounding thud and the click of the lock sliding into place. And just as before she disappeared into the shadow world in which she lived and thrived.

"How the hell does this shit happen?" Duo screamed out into the empty room.

The five ex-Gundam pilots were sitting in their office back at head quarters. Every time that they had her she slipped away. They had been chasing her for months now. And they were getting closer and closer. They kept thinking that this was the last time. On the desk in front of Duo were several slips of papers and piles of notes half of which were hand written. Heero picked up the latest slip of paper that they had recovered from the apartment they had raided the day before. On it were three words. The same three words that had haunted the pilots ever since they started this seemingly endless chase.

_In your dreams._

Quatra sat at his desk not speaking. He had been so sure that they had her this time that he had made a mistake. Granted so far they had all made mistakes when it came to catching her. Heero had gotten knocked out. Wufei had been used as a hostage. Trowa had been drugged. And Duo had been handcuffed to a pole. They did not even have a name for her. They didn't know much about her at all in fact. They had a few very grainy pictures to go off of but had no reliable description of her. She was like a shadow and no one knew what to do about it. Wufei slammed his fist down onto his own desk and the sound echoed in the dead room.

"What the hell is up with this woman? She runs but not to any place in particular." He ground out through clenched teeth.

"Making her harder to follow." Trowa stated.

"She has no name and no face.'

"Also making her hard to identify." Quatra sighed as he said it.

"She has no connections anywhere and yet she seems to thrive"

"No connections means she has no way to get ratted out. She thrives because she knows what she is doing." Heero stated as he stared at the file.

"And worse she has made us all look like idiots." Wufei's ranted ended in a huff of breath.

"Look we know she's smart. She has managed to evade us. I want to know who the hell trained her and why she seems to always know what we are going to do. She even knows our weaknesses." Duo seemed to think as he said this.

"Yes but how?" Quatra practically shouted out.

He was frustrated. They all were. They were tired and they wanted answers. But more then that they all wanted a drink. Without speaking they all packed up and left the office and headed to their favorite bar.

They sat at their normal table and their waitress brought over their usual drink. The place was full of off duty Preventors. As they sat their sipping their drinks in silence someone came over.

"Hey guys. Wow. You all look tired."

"Hey Ryan. How is life?" Duo managed to drag out.

Ryan Jones was a 6 foot tall Preventor that the pilots had worked with before. He was nice and they all got along. He was also one the best hackers in the Preventors. In fact the only people that could beat him where the five men sitting in front of him.

"Eh. It's life you know? Hey sorry to bother you but someone handed me this as I was walking in and told me to give it to you." Ryan handed them an envelope with very familiar writing on it.

Duo ripped it out of his hands and thanked him. All five watched as Ryan walked away and then opened the envelope. On the out side was the same scrawled handwriting that had been haunting them.

_Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatra Winner, and Chang Wufei_

_All of you know who I am. Or at least you should since you have been hunting me. I must admit that you have been getting closer and closer to capturing me, but as you know I can't let that happen. So I am asking you to please cease. My job requires me to be secretive and unknown but I will not hesitate to kill you if you continue this pursuit. This is the last and only time that I will ask you. The next time there will be death and it won't be mine. Please. I am sorry but this has to be the end. _

There was silence as they read and reread the letter. The fact the she had said please startled them. They was no signature and they could tell that she was not gloating. She actually was being sincere with her words. Heero stood up and left the bar without speaking.

He walked down the road knowing that the others would not follow him. He needed time to think. She was an assassin of the highest caliber, which was why the pilots had been assigned to bring her in. She left no calling card and no M.O. She was cold blooded and ruthless but she still took care with her job. The victims never felt anything and she never made it messy. She even took the time to close their eyes. She could use anything to complete her task. Heero as well as the others knew that she could follow through on her threat to kill them. He knew that she knew more about them then they would ever know about her. He walked back to the house that he and the other pilots all shared. Ever since the war they had stuck together. They were the only real family that they had and they all knew that they had to stick together.

She watched from the shadows as Heero Yuy walked away from the note and into the house. She had known where they lived since the beginning of the chase. She had watched them enter and exit the house and knew all about them. She felt sorry for them. But she also knew that the world she lived in had to be a secret. She knew that they could not be brought into her world. They had left it long ago and going back was not an option for them. She smiled sadly to herself as she began to walk away. She knew that one day she would escape the world of shadows and secrets. The world where the only light was the glint of steel before you were killed. She glanced up and saw the other four walking toward her. She did not fear being recognized. In fact as they passed she looked at them and nodded.

"Good evening." She said.

"Like wise" Stated Duo as he glanced over that the figure passing them. But by the time he had gotten to the house he had forgotten all about her.

Two years passed quickly. She was never forgotten but her file was closed and the chase ended. Quatra had said that it was only fitting. She had escaped them and had therefore earned their respect. The assassinations had started to dwindle. The world was finding peace and was moving past the wars and the grudges that they had made. The note that they had received that night was not included in the file. It was pinned to the wall next to the door. It was fading and slowly starting to look less and less real.

The five sat at their desks working on papers that needed to be finished. Suddenly the door opened to reveal Une and a young girl standing behind her. The girl had short red hair that was tied in a ponytail. She had very light blue eyes. So light in fact they looked almost grey. She wore a black jacket the collar of which came high up on her neck. She wore naturally faded jeans and a pair of black sneakers. She met each of the guys eyes as she and Une entered the room.

"Boys listen up. This is one of our newest recruits. And before you say anything Chang she is excellent. In fact I would like you to take her on the latest mission that I gave you." Une said.

"We don't need any help on it Une. And none from a teenage girl." Heero stated as he looked the girl up and down. He noticed that she was thin but seemed to be muscular, and had what appeared to be scars on her hands.

"Don't care. She needs field experience and all the other teams already have someone they are paired with. I want you to train her. She is the best recruit we have right now. And it's not an option." Une stated firmly as she glared back at Heero.

Une left the room and closed the door behind her. The girl stood in the silence looking back at the five men glaring at her. Heero grunted and got back to the paper work he was working on.

"Hi. I'm Duo. This is Quatra. That's Heero and Wufei. And that is Trowa." He pointed to each as he introduced them. Only Quatra smiled at her.

"I'm Riku Kai." She shook the hand that Duo offered her.

"Well tell us about yourself." He leaned against his desk as he spoke to her.

"I am from L1 originally and was adopted from an orphanage there." Duo noticed that she did not say anything about her parents but said nothing about it to her.

"I moved all over during the first war I even lived on Earth for some time while I was going to school. I fought with a group of rebels during the final months of the war and then worked to rebuild the town that we had been working out of after it was destroyed. During the Eve Wars I was fighting on my own. After that I lived life as normal as possible but I had seen to much war and pain to go back to society. So I joined up with the Preventors. " She looked at Duo as she told him about her history. He noticed that she did not go into details about what sides or anything. He assumed as did the rest of the pilots that it was because she was on the losing side.

"And what about the scars on your hands?" Heero asked.

She pulled her sleeves up to her elbow showing the long jagged scars that ran all the way up them.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when one of the Gundams took out the base that I was on." She stated coolly.

The silence that followed filled the room. All five of the pilots were looking at the long scars. Thinking back to the war and the bases they had destroyed. She slid the sleeves back down.

"Do you blame them?" Quatra asked quietly. All the pilots knew that it had been hard on the blonde. He hated to think of all the people that he had hurt and then to have one of those people standing in their office was a reminder that they were all still out there somewhere. And that the scars of their deeds would always be there. She looked Quatra in the eyes as she spoke.

"No. We all did what we had to do. The war forced many to do things that they never would have done other wise. I have no right to blame others when I took lives and left scars the same as the rest. There are those that blame the boys that piloted the Gundams but I see no reason to cast blame on them and not on OZ or White Fang or any other group that came to life during the war. " She spoke with enough conviction to tell them all that she was telling the truth.

"What base?" Wufei was the one to ask the question that was on all of their minds. They waited and listened wanting to know if they were the one guilty of giving her the scars.

"It doesn't matter." She stated matter of factly.

She turned towards the door and started to leave when Duo grabbed her wrist.  
"Which base?" Duo stated coldly as he looked down at the floor.

"It does not matter Agent Maxwell. I don't blame the pilot that attacked anymore then I blame the OZ guards on duty that night that captured me. All that is in the past and I don't fight it anymore." She stated coldly.

She pulled her arm away from Duo.

"Is there some way that I am supposed to help you?" She asked ending the conversation.

"No. No it is all paper work from past cases. You can go home for today. We will see you tomorrow morning at six." Trowa watched as she nodded and left.

The other pilots had not moved.

"The scars…" mumbled Quatra.

"She said she did not hold it against the pilot." Trowa stated.

"She said she was on an OZ base and had been captured. Which means…"

"Enough." Trowa spoke loudly, "She didn't say so there is no reason to assume. She said she does not blame us and I believe her so shut up and don't worry about it."

The rest of the day was silence as they all continued to think about the scars and the bases that they had each attacked during the war.

The next morning the pilots came in at five only to find that Riku was already in the office filing papers that Une had brought in earlier. She nodded to them as they came in but did not stop working. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, which made the scars more obvious.

"Une brought in these files and asked you to sign these papers on your last mission. She also said that you need to be in the conference room by seven thirty to talk about how you plan on handling the newest mission." Riku spoke as she finished the filing.

"How long have you been here?" Heero asked. He was not happy that even though they were always the earliest agents in she had been here before them.

"I didn't leave. I had some things that I needed to work out and by the time I was done it was three in the morning so I stayed here." She stated as she turned to look at them.

She saw all their eyes drift down to her arms. She sighed.

"Enough. If you must know, you were all there that night. I was assigned to sabotage a shipment of mobile suits that were being shipped off in the morning. I was caught as I was leaving and taken in to custody to be questioned. It was a stupid miscalculation on my part and I knew that. You all destroyed the base. I already said I don't blame you so stop beating yourselves up about it. It is the past." Riku sighed.

All five stared at her.

"You knew who we were? Why did you not say? Why did you agree to work with us?" Quatra asked.

"Of course I knew. Not only was it part of my job to know who was who during the wars but I worked with people that knew you five. I didn't say because it doesn't matter to me. And I agreed to work with you because you are the best." She looked at each of them in turn. Then said very calmly, "You have fifteen minutes to get to the conference room."

It had been three weeks since the first meeting. As Duo looked back on it all he almost laughed. Once she had told them about the base things had started to work. They still caught each other glancing at the scars but it didn't seem as big a deal anymore. She was always to head quarters before they were. Half the time she never left. Duo even began to wonder if she even had a place to stay. She proved to be a good tactician when they started planning for the mission. And she was a good shot with a pistol, which she proved every time they were on the range. She was even able to keep up with them when they ran the obstacle course. They knew nothing more about her then what they had learned the first two days. She kept her life private and didn't seem to have many people who were friends. In fact as far as Duo could tell most of the recruits that Riku had trained with hated her. Duo noticed them glaring at her as she worked, or heard whispered words in the hall about her. He chuckled to himself as he pushed on the door to their office and nearly ran into her. She was looking at the note that had been pinned to the wall over two years ago.

"Why?" She asked.

Duo saw that there was no one else in the office. He went and sat down at his desk before he answered her.

"She was an assassin that we were chasing after the war. She was the only perp that managed to evade arrest even by us. That was a note she wrote to us before she disappeared." He said as he rummaged in his desk for some papers he had been working on. He looked up in time to see the door click shut and realize that he was now alone in the room.

Nearly a year had gone by since Riku started working with the Gundam pilots. She worked well with all of them. She and Quatra would talk for hours before settling on the perfect tactics for any mission. Heero and Riku would both go down to the range on a daily basis and shoot for almost and hour. Wufei and she were able to talk philosophy and sword fight. Trowa and she worked well when it came to infiltration. And when she and Duo were put together on a stealth mission there was no way that they could fail. She became part of the group and even ended up with a desk in the same office as the pilots. She had never been to their house however. They had invited her several times but she always declined. And every now and then Duo would catch her staring at the note pinned on the wall. All in all everything was working out well, but all good things must come to an end. The end that happened was not what any of them expected.

Riku had taken one of the few vacations that she ever used. She said it was to go see old friends from back during the war. She would be gone for three weeks and when she got back there was a drug bust that they were involved in that was supposed to go down. She had only been gone two days when it happened.

The pilots were all sitting at their desks working when a secretary came in with a box covered in dust and a file. She set it on Riku's desk because it was the only one empty at that time.

"Lady Une says that it is important that you get started on this immediately." She said and then left.

The five men looked at the box. They didn't need to open it to know everything inside it. They all unconsciously glanced towards the note on the wall. As one they got up and walked over to the desk. Heero picked up the file and after reading it handed it over to the others to read.

"She's back." Was all Heero said before turning to the others.

"Perfect killing. No evidence. And no calling card." Wufei voiced out loud what they all knew.

The second killing took place two weeks later, and found the five men standing around the body of a well known business man. He was poisoned. The five knew who was behind it but had no proof and no way to catch her. She still managed to remain nameless and faceless.

"What is it officer?" Quatra asked the cop that had just walked in. All five were tired and frustrated.

"Um well sirs there is something that I think you might like to see." He said rather uncertainly. The cop was not sure if it was a good idea to even be speaking to these men. None the less he lead them down the hall of the mansion the man had been killed in to a room that was filled with video screens.

"We were looking over the footage to see if we could find anything. I know you said that this girl was to good to be caught on tape but we did find something." He showed them the footage from the day of the killing.

"See this figure. We think it might be the killer because the when she bumps into the victim…" the officer trailed off as he slowed down the footage.

The pilots could clearly see the tiny needle that had been filled with the poison that killed the man. But more important to them then the needle was the hand that was holding it. The hand that was scared from a Gundam attack.

Riku sat in her hotel room. She knew she had been careless on her last hit. She was sure that if they looked carefully they would see her inject the man. She wanted to bang her head against the wall but figured it was unfair to the wall to do so. Instead she sighed loudly and closed her eyes.

"Well all good things must end." She said. She slowly packed all her belongings into her duffel bag and left the room.

Riku knew what she had to do. It was time that she paid the price that she had set for herself the day she started killing people. She had known that there was no way that she could get away with it forever. She knew after she met the pilots and saw the note hanging on the wall that someday she would have to tell them. She simply wished that she could tell them the truth of it all. But no. She could no more tell them the truth then she could have not killed in the first place. She packed her things and organized all of the things that she felt she needed to.

On Monday morning three weeks after she left she walked up the steps to Preventors head quarters. She walked calmly into the office later then she ever had before. The five were all sitting at their desks and looked up when she entered. No one spoke as she set the worn old duffle down on what had once been her desk. She calmly walked over to the wall where her note was still hanging five sets of eyes followed her. She sighed before unpinning it from the wall. She heard all five of her former teammates stand up. She sighed again. She knew that what she was about to do would hurt and she knew that what she said would never and could never be taken back. It was going to be harder then anything she had ever done before. She breathed in and then crumpled the sheet of paper. The sound was deafening in the silent room.

"You know looking back I should have just killed you that night. You walked right past me on your way home. I could have killed you then. I should have killed you then." She turned to them. She looked them in the eyes as she spoke, an almost evil grin spread across her face but inside she was trying not to cry.

"You bastards destroyed life as if it had no value. You claimed to be saviors but all you managed to be was killers. Tell me, how many innocent people did you kill? How many scars did you leave? Did you ever feel remorse? It is over now. I have avenged the deaths of those who needed it." As she finished she threw the note to the ground. Two Preventors came in with Lady Une behind them.

"Arrest her." Was all Une said.

As Riku left the room she stepped purposefully on the wad of paper. Une looked back at the five inside as she closed the door. The room was engulfed in silence.

The five former Gundam pilots stood in the darkened room watching as their former ally and friend was questioned. She had not spoken in the thirty-six hours she had been in custody. She just stared off into space. Heero looked at the others and together they walked into the interrogation room.

"Leave Agent Parker." Heero was in soldier mode now and the agent in question left. The only people left in the room were the pilots and Riku.

"Who are you?" Heero asked.

"Don't ask questions you know the answer to Agent Yuy. It's boring." Riku's voice was cold as she spoke. She had never called him Agent Yuy before. She could see that it had hurt him. Good she thought. Hate me.

"Who are you?" Heero asked again this time his voice held an edge. She simply laughed. The crack of his hand across her face filled the room. The other pilots remained motionless and refused to show their true feelings.

"Who hired you then?" Heero asked.

"The same people who suffered at the hands of the monsters I killed." She replied.

"Names."

"No." Once again Heero slapped her leaving angry red marks on her face.

"I am not playing with you. Tell me what I want to know." Heero tried to contain his anger. Inside he was fighting the fact that the person in front of him was a killer for hire but also someone that he had grown to respect and care about. As if she could see the inner turmoil Riku smirked.

"Sorry 01. That information is classified as in none of your damn business." This time the hit did not come from Heero instead Wufei had slapped her. Riku saw her vision blur slightly before looking back at the Chinese man.

"It's not nice to hit women 05." She chuckled as she said it. He glared at her and bent down to look her in the eyes.

"You betrayed all of us. You had no right to decide who was worthy of life or who had to atone for their sins, Woman." Wufei growled out. Heero calmly walked over to the video camera and unplugged it, he took a deep breath before turning back to the room. He knew what he was about to do would be one of the hardest things he had ever done and he was not even sure if he was strong enough to handle it. Getting information from an enemy was one thing, but this girl was a friend. He pushed back those thoughts. He reverted back to the perfect soldier and walked over to her. Trowa walked to her side and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"You are a lying bitch." Then he shoved her so hard she fell out of the chair and hit the ground hard. She laughed and tried to sit up but she felt someone's boot keeping her pinned down. She looked up into the pale blue eyes of Quatra. Someone who she had once considered a friend. Someone that she had once fought and risked her life alongside of. She could tell that he was trying to hold back tears, and it hurt her. She laughed anyways.

"Aww. Does little baby Quatra feel sorry? Does the heartless desert prince feel remorse for something?" There was a sickening crunch as Quatra stepped on and broke Riku's hand. She grimaced but still laughed. Duo was standing over he now and he kicked her hard in the stomach. When she tried to laugh this time she felt blood fill her mouth. She knew what all these men were capable of. And she knew that she deserved all that she got. She spit the blood onto the floor.

"Oh come on pretty boy. The OZ soldiers did a better job then you." She rasped out. She felt someone break her leg.

An hour later five solemn young men walked out of the room. They nodded towards Une as they passed her. She placed a hand on Duo's shoulder.

"Well?" She asked.

Duo looked at the floor and then looked Une in the eye as he said, "She refused to speak." There was a cold edge to his voice that Une had never heard there before. She nodded and then walked into the room. The girl who had once been one of her best agents was laying unconscious on the floor bleeding and with what looked to be several broken bones. She called for a medical team to come in and see to her. Before she left however Une turned to the girl and leaned down over her.

"You are lucky they got to you first." She spat, then she stood and kicked the unconscious girl in the stomach before she left the room.

Four days later it was announced that Riku had killed herself. She had given herself enough poison to kill her but not instantly. The doctor said that she must have been in excruciating pain in the end. Une gave the job of cleaning out her locker and apartment to the men who had once been her teammates.

They went to her apartment first and found that it was mostly empty. There was a photo of Riku and the pilots that had been taken when they had gone paint balling one weekend about three months before she had given herself up. They all stood there with smiles on their faces and guns in the air in triumph. They were covered in paint and all of them had been bruised for a week after that day. Quatra picked up the photo. No one spoke as he held it close to his heart. They could see the barely restrained tears as they walked away from the empty lifeless apartment. As they rode back to the office Quatra held the picture to his chest and wondered why he had not just thrown it in the trash. But he already knew the answer to that. He knew that he as well as the others had hoped to find some explanation. Some thing that told them that it was not true. The ride was silent as they all thought over the things that were going on.

They got back to head quarters they walked to her locker. Heero open it quickly and took out the contents. It had clothes and her uniform. It had the pistol that she had always used. It had a ticket stub from a movie that they had all gone and seen together. It had several pictures of her with each of them. Heero picked up the pistol and fell silent as he thought about the past. Duo picked up a single white envelope. He was surprised that he still recognized the scrawled out letters that addressed the letter to himself and the others. He opened it and looked at the writing for a second before clearing his throat and began reading out loud.

_Dear Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatra, and Wufei_

_I know how it all looks. If you are reading this then you are very angry with me. I am also sure that I am dead by this point. I am writing this final letter to tell you the truth. You can believe what you choose to but this is the truth that I am telling you now. Not what I said before. When I was adopted my father began to train me to follow in his footsteps. When he died I took on his work. The war had broken out and I began to realize that I needed to be more then a killer. I needed to be a killer with a side. I choose the side that I believed in. Your side. I was good at my job and it was something that I could do to help. When the war ended I thought that I would be able to lead a normal life. But I found that many of the people who I had not killed or who had not died during the war were starting to revolt. And so I took up my past job to try and keep the peace. I was a fool to believe that I could bring peace through death. But it was what I believed at the time. After a time I learned my misconception was just that a misconception. I tried to live in the peace that you five helped to create but I found no place for me to fit. Even in the Preventors organization I felt confined. Another threat to peace began to take shape and I decided that I needed to get rid of it. But I realized that I needed to put an end to what I was doing as well. So I devised a plan. I took care of the threat and then I took care of the final threat. Myself. _

_I never took any money for the services I rendered. I saw it as the only way that I could help bring about peace. My life was hell for two years before I became a Preventor. I had nothing to do. I no longer fit into a world that was ruled by peace and not by the military or by death. You five helped me to feel as though I had a place. Even if it was for only a short period. I am sorry for the trouble I caused you as well as the pain. But these scars that I have from the war will never heal in the same way that your's did. You were able to move on and I was not. Please believe me when I say that I hated to see you get hurt by my betrayal. I am sorry for all the pain that I could not help but cause. Please forgive my soul._

_ Riku_

Her funeral was held one week later. Only five people were there as Riku was lowered into the ground and covered over with dirt. No flowers were left at the gravesite. No sappy eulogy was given. And no tears were shed. Of course later in the privacy of their own rooms they mourned the loss but as they stood looking at the simple headstone and the fresh dirt they smiled sadly for the young girl who could never find her place in the world. A photo was left at the grave site. A photo of six people covered in paint and laughing. The five pilots walked away sadly feeling as though they had just buried one of their own and in a way they had. They had buried the final piece of the war they had fought for so long.

Riku Kai

You are forgiven

_al


End file.
